Power game starts for coaching job

LAHORE – Keeping in view the consistent poor performance of national team in Asia Cup and World Twenty20, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to dismiss the head coach Waqar Younis, chief selector Haroon Rasheed and captain of Twenty20 Shahid Afridi.
The PCB management, which has itself proved equally incapable, is not satisfied with the performance of head coach, chief selector and T20 captain.
Earlier, the PCB had decided to give extension to head coach Waqar till England tour but now it has decided to say good-bye to whole coaching staff including foreigners.
It is also decided to sack the selection committee, which is led by Haroon Rashid with Azhar Khan, Kabir Khan and Salim Jaffar as its members. The Board high-ups are holding lengthy meetings to decide the names for the new appointments as more than one and a half dozen posts are up for grab. And as the lucrative posts are on offer the old lobbyists have started to win the jobs for either themselves or for some close aides.
Sourses say that former cricketer Ramiz Raja and star bowler Wasim Akram have been given the task to find new coach for team whereas the government has also directed to launch probe into Pakistan’s defeat. Wasim is already lobbying for his commentary box pal and Pakistan Super League Team Islamabad United’s coach Dean Jones for the head coach slot.
Wasim has already proposed the name to PCb chairman Shaharyar Khan during his Indian visit. Sources say that Wasim is also trying to block the way for Aqib indirectly. The PCB chief has already disclosed in his recent most press conference that he had held talks with Wasim on appointing the head coach and Wasim is favouring a foreign coach. The PCB chief also endorsed Wasim’s view that a foreign coach brings new culture in the team and is more suitable for the job. But he also did not rule out the possibility of hiring a local coach as well.
Former Pakistani right arm medium pacer, Aaqib is also one of the 0frontrunners to take over Waqar as the next Pakistan coach. The former currently holds the position of the coach of the UAE national cricket team which took part in the recently concluded Asia Cup in Dhaka.
Aaqib’s managerial stint with the UAE has left a positive impact on the PCB where the former player has managed to lead the middle-east team to the main rounds of the ICC T20 World Cup 2014 and the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2015.
In a recent interview given to Gulf News, Aaqib said: ”Right now it is only speculation, but I will be one of the candidates should there be a decision to change the coach.”
Meanwhile, worried by the fitness of its players, the board has also decided to send players under army’s training to bring them into shape. After the World T20, the players would undergo stern training at Military Academy Kakul in Abbotabad for a month, as Pakistan’s has no assignment is ahead before July’s tour of England.